A Foodie’s Guide to Budapest

Anyone will tell you that I’m a huge foodie and one of the best things about travelling to a different country for me is finding their best restaurants and hidden gems. It should tell you enough that I need to dedicate a whole post to the food that Budapest has to offer! My boyfriend and I came across some amazing restaurants. As in my previous post Budapest: The Best Things To Do I will be ranking them with pound signs ranging from £ to £££ so it’s easy to scan for the cheapest options if you’re travelling on a budget. The pricing is all relative to how cheap Budapest is, so the pizza place was £7.50 for two pizzas and is ranked £, whereas the Michelin star place we visited was £17.5o for three courses each including wine so is ranked £££ in comparison. This post concludes my little mini series on Budapest so I hope you enjoy this last one!

This was hands down our favourite restaurant in Budapest. We stumbled upon it (quite literally) one night after a couple of drinks, and it made the perfect late night snack. The quality is impeccable and we went back at least another two times during our stay. One of our best nights was actually staying in with a pizza and a beautiful bottle of local Hugarian wine. Cannot recommend this place highly enough!

2. Zing in the Karavan£

We went to the Karavan Food Court for lunch after visiting the famous Szimpla Ruin Bar, it’s right next door. I went to the Zing burger van, where you can get the most delicious fresh burgers with fries and a drink for only 1,700HU which is about £4.50. There are a few of these vans dotted around Budapest and it’s a great pit stop for lunch if you’re busy sightseeing.

3. Sophie and Ben Bistro£

Again, another burger place! We had this lovely lunch after walking up Gellert Hill (see here if you missed my last post on the best things to do) and it was thoroughly appreciated. They do lovely ‘standard’ burgers but it was also great for my boyfriend who’s a pescatarian, he had a goats cheese, pecan and pear burger which he loved (maybe something to do with the pears being poached in port). It definitely hit the spot after all the walking we did!

4. Book Cafe – Lotz Terem£

This place is so opulent it feels like you should be sipping your tea in a ballgown, but in reality it’s a very relaxed cafe. It’s tucked away at the back of a huge bookshop and offers refreshments and beautiful cakes. We whiled away an afternoon in here whilst it was pouring with rain outside, we each bought a book and sat on comfy sofas drinking tea and taking in the amazing surroundings. It’s surprisingly inexpensive and I would highly recommend you make a visit here!

5. Mazel Tov££

I want to give this about two and a half pound signs, but only because the cocktails are so good that you’ll spend more money in this restaurant than you were planning! It’s a beautiful restaurant that’s half outside and half inside, definitely book if you want to sit outside underneath the beautiful fairy lights. We made the mistake of just managing to get a table inside because it was so popular! It’s situated in the Jewish Quarter and the food reflects this. It was lovely to taste a whole different style of food. Book, sit outside, enjoy the atmosphere and drink aaaall the cocktails.

We went here at night and sat looking at Budaest’s beautiful twinkling skyline with a cocktail in hand (I realise I’m coming across as a bit of a cocktail fanatic!) The cocktails are understandably a little more expensive as it’s such a hotspot for tourists, but it’s worth paying a bit more for the wonderful view.

This restaurant is definitely more on the pricier side but is entirely worth it if you’re true foodies. It’s menu is designed around different stories every month, hence the design of the restaurant looks a lot like a bookshop. It all sounds a bit cheesy and I went in fairly apprehensively, but we were both completely blown away by the quality of the food. I had roasted breast of chicken with sugar snap pea risotto from the a la carte menu, whilst my boyfriend had the main based on The Little Prince and the character’s relationship with a rose (pictured above). The food was, I would say, on par if not better than the Michelin star restaurant we also visited (see below). Finally, take the staff’s wine recommendations, it matched our meals perfectly.

We decided to visit Tanti because compared to other Michelin star places I’ve been lucky enough to eat at in England, it was fairly inexpensive. It’s bizarrely connected to a shopping centre and situated in Buda rather than Pest (a taxi ride away) but we didn’t let this perturb us. The food was delicious, I had the duck terrine to start with pickled vegetables, the rabbit with pea risotto for main and the chocolate grapefruit dessert. Although the food and wine were both lovely, it is slightly different to my other Michelin experiences. For one, the dress code is casual, there was a man dressed in a t-shirt, shorts and sandals with socks and it was fine. So guys, don’t feel like you have to wear trousers even if it’s 28 degrees outside (unlike my poor boyfriend). Secondly, the staff weren’t that attentive, which was a bit of a shame. Nevertheless, the food was still lovely, but if I were you I would head to Konyvbar over Tanti. Same sort of price, but with better staff and just as lovely food.